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Port Harcourt Street Food · Fire-Roasted Plantain

Bole (Roasted Plantain and Fish)

Bole (Roasted Plantain and Fish) — street food from Port Harcourt, Nigeria
Photo: Wejike7 / Wikimedia Commons · CC0 1.0

Vendors are judged less on the plantain than on their pepper sauce recipe, which many families guard closely and keep unchanged for years.

Bole is ripe plantain roasted whole over open charcoal until the skin blackens and the inside turns soft and smoky, peeled and served alongside a whole grilled fish and a fiery pepper sauce. 'Bole and fish' stands line street corners across Port Harcourt.

Why it's made this way: It's considered Port Harcourt's defining street food, so central to local identity that the city has held an annual Bole Festival celebrating it since 2016.
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Part of World of Street Food — 3248 dishes from 118 countries. Something wrong here? Tell us in the comments below. Photo credits.